2015-16 News

Our Science World booth was a great success! Thanks to Science World for hosting the event, and thanks to all the parents and kids who stopped by to try out our problems: "Build Me Up", a tower construction challenge; "Book Bind", a weight-holding problem and our incredibly popular "Head of a Pin" problem - where kids tried balancing 13 nails on the head of one nail - no magnets involved! Our new booth, with the light up logo and expert construction was not only striking, but was built Odyssey style - out of materials found in someone's garage! Biggest thanks go to our volunteers, who staffed the booth against the hordes of visitors on Science World's Free Day - and made sure everyone who visited had a good time.

AGM and Odyssey of the Mind Kick-Off (October 8, 2015)

We've kicked off the season with our Annual General Meeting. The meeting room at Coquitlam's Public Library (Poirier Street) was bursting with people, at some point we ran out of chairs and snacks. There were more than 80 people. Thanks to everyone who showed up and for your continuous support!

Beside the treasurer's financial report Cheryl Atwater, CPSS President, and the Odyssey Association Co-Directors Jennifer Martin and Holly Lloyd reported about events and activities sponsored by the society, from the late and difficult start into the year due to the teachers' job action - to the fantastic results at the end of the season: University of Victoria's team winning a silver medal and a giant trophy at World Finals (Problem 5: Silent Movie), Rochester Elementary's Division 1 team placing tenth at World Finals (again Problem 5: Silent Movie), and Odyssey BC winning both the Coaches Challenge and first place for our awesome booth at World Finals' Creativity Festival. Thanks to Glenn Ross for designing and building it. Wow, what a year! Unfortunately there is no medal for making tenth place, but the team was awarded with a plaque for making it into the TOP TEN and were hoping it can be displayed at Rochester Elementary. Way to go team BC!

Elections for the board went smoothly and we are welcoming a few new faces on board (Unfortunately nobody took a photo!): Charles Wong and Nina Bianco volunteered as Directors at large, Ryan Kwasnicky and Kathryn Floropoulos (again) joined as Youth Reps, Emily van der Velden and Zoe Fajber are going to be Co-Directors Public Relation, and in addition, Debora Kwasnicky will be appointed as Secretary. Also on board again, Cheryl Atwater (CPSS President), Holly Lloyd (CPSS Vice President), Jennifer Martin (Association Director), and Lee Atwater (Treasurer).

As our organization absolutely relies on their volunteers we've decided to honor extraordinary commitment with an "Volunteer of the Year Award". The first award went to the Kwasnicky Family, Debora, Paul and Ryan who put in countless hours during the last year, i.e. planning and running balsa training sessions, helping organize Fun Day, all of them running stations at Spontaneous Attack, judging and timekeeping at the tournaments - just to name a few of the things they were involved with. We couldn't have done it without them.

Looking forward to an exciting and successful 2015-16 season! We would love to see YOU around.

Curiosity Camp in Burnaby (October 17, 2015)

Our first Curiosity Camp went really well with about 50 kids attending. We had set up four stations - ran by experienced Odyssey of the Mind coaches. The kids worked together in small teams, very similar to an Odyssey team, solving a variety of hands-on problem. They had lots of fun. Many parents were really curious about what it is like to be an Odyssey coach, and also about putting their children into the Odyssey program. The camp was a great opportunity for those parents to shadow experienced coaches. They could see how different coaches handle different situations, and how they debrief with teams after solving a challenge. It was also very refreshing to see the kids problem-solve and interact with each other. All in all, a great success - we are planning to offer more camps next year. Check our calendar of events in September 2016 for Curiosity Camps in your community.

Our Kids (October 24, 2015)

"Our Kids", a Conference for Parents and Others Connected to Gifted Children was held at Winslow Centre in Coquitlam. Featured speaker for the parent program was Dr. Marcia Imbeau from the University of Arkansas, who spoke on the TOP 5 research-based "big ideas" that impact gifted kids, both at home and at school. Will gifted learners really "make it on their own" or what do they need in order to succeed? Does Mindset play a role? What's the key condition in Flow that will get your child engaged in learning? How do support and challenge build up a student's resiliency? What traits are at the centre of eminent levels of achievement?

In the afternoon, there was a panel discussion with representatives of the Gifted Children's Association. Meanwhile, the grade 2-5 kids in the Jabber-Wacky Mini-Camp, had fun designing and testing creative contraptions, and the older students in our "Total Chaos" day camp created very impressive pinball machines. Check out some of the photos below.

Fun Day (November 21, 2015)

The Fun Day broke new ground at Montgomery Middle School this year! Students built flashlights from scratch, engineered structures to support HUGE weight, learned acting techniques and the ins and outs of puppetry. Teams of kids built their vision of a Treasure Hunt - creating a fabulous 'treasure' out of recycled materials and the 'security system' to protect it! The day wound up with exciting presentations of their creations in skit form - ten teams showed us their stuff and WOWED us! Thanks to all the participants and our great volunteers for making this a fantastic day!

Spontaneous Attack (January 23, 2016)

Spontaneous Attack 2016 was a sell-out this year again! Canada teams always perform well at Worlds, and we would like to thank all the teams for investing their time in training to help continue that trend. It's the effort of the coaches, parents and our many dedicated volunteers that make any of our events a success, and Spontaneous Attack is no exception.

Every year we spend many hours prepping, planning and examining all the problems - and every year the teams surprise us with their creative solutions! We always love to see your teams there to learn and experience about Spontaneous Problems, and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Odyssey BC Provincial Tournament (April 16, 2016)

Our Provincial Tournament completed the season with an excellent turnout and an even more impressive presentation of solutions from our very creative teams. As always, the competition was fierce in Problems 3 and 5, but this year's Problem 4 'Stack Attack' was a favourite for many teams. Problem 1 judges saw some incredible vehicles, and Problem 2 wowed with their captures! We are proud to send our Gold Medal teams to World Finals in Ames, Iowa.

Odyssey of the Mind World Finals 2016

Team BC enjoyed the beautiful campus and gorgeous weather at the 2016 World Finals, hosted this year by Iowa State University. All teams had solid results, with some excellent finishes in Spontaneous! Returning again with Team BC is a Finalist award in the Float and Banner Competition, and a First Place trophy for the Coaches Competition! Thanks again to all the teams who worked so hard to get to Worlds and demonstrate your creative solutions! To check out photos from the World's Competition click here.